Gone (Dwight Yoakam album)

All of Yoakam's first three albums hit #1 on the country albums chart, and, after the transitional If There Was a Way in 1990, he scored the biggest album of his career with 1993's This Time, which went triple platinum and spawned three Top 5 singles, including the #2 single “Fast As You, which also made Billboard's Hot 100. This commercial momentum came to an abrupt halt with the release of Gone, which precipitated the singer's decline as a hit making country artist. Yoakam's longtime producer and guitarist Pete Anderson lays the blame at the feet of Warner Bros. Nashville for its lack of promotion, later commenting, “We went from a triple platinum record to a record that sold three hundred and fifty thousand copies…What does that tell you? It tells me people didn't even know the record was out.”[2]   Others contend that Gone went further from his country roots than some listeners, and country radio, were willing to go, with AllMusic's Thom Jurek warning “…it's true that those who long for Yoakam's purely honky-tonk style may be lost a bit here…”[3]   In addition, Yoakam was becoming more involved in acting, appearing in 1993's Red Rock West and Billy Bob Thornton's 1996 vehicle Sling Blade. Biographer Don McLeese writes, “…the more time (and, eventually, money) Dwight invested in a film career, the less he would think of himself as exclusively as musical artist, particularly as it became apparent that he wasn't likely to enjoy the consistent commercial success post-Gone that he had from the start of his recording career.”[4] Although Gone is remembered fondly by all those involved – Pete Anderson calls it “a beautiful, beautiful record”[4] – Yoakam has not had a Top 10 country single since its release.

Dusty Wakeman, Gone's executive producer, later admitted experimentation was the order of the day during the sessions, telling one writer, “Gone was totally like, ‘Let's go crazy,' and I knew that going in.”[4] Yoakam also composed the tunes on an electric guitar, which was a new development and may account for the jangly Byrds-type quality of songs like “Near You,” that being one of two cuts to feature Friends theme-singing The Rembrandts on background vocals. Lyrically speaking, “Near You” is atypical for Yoakam - a breezy celebration of ‘the power of love” that thrives on its own giddiness – while the mariachi-driven “Sorry You Asked?” and Texas spoof “Baby Why Not” are comical, a world away from the dark subject matter found on previous albums like Buenos Noches from a Lonely Room. “Never Hold You” is a flat out rocker in the vein of Tom Petty, without any traces of the rockabilly that usually tinged Yoakam's heavier material, while "One More Night" sounds like Yoakam and Anderson trying for the Rolling Stones, with soul singers, brass, and Anderson even employing a sitar in the finale. Most drastic was “Nothing,” the album's lead single written with songwriting collaborator Kostas, which sounds more like Al Green than Buck Owens or Merle Haggard. The song barely made the Top 20. Yoakam later said, “That album had this splitting up of our musical atom, so to speak. With Pete controlling the engineering, and then me throwing paint over my shoulder at times.[4] As one critic put it, “It's the record Dwight had to make, and it's one that his Nashville label had no idea how to sell, no luck in selling, or no interest in selling.[5]

Despite its eclectic parts, Gone contains material akin with Yoakam's musical roots, such as the Ray Price shuffle “Don't Be Sad” and the pulsating title track, which, despite its radio-friendly appeal, stiffed as a single, peaking at #51. With its sweeping orchestral introduction, “Heart of Stone” is a pure country single in the vein of Patsy Cline that failed to chart.

Although Gone's release generated extensive media interest in Yoakam, its commercial success paled in comparison to his previous album This Time. AllMusic: “Gone is the work of a singular talent with input from many different sources, from instrumentalists and horn and string sections to a dozen backing vocalists all used on different tracks.”[3]

All tracks written by Dwight Yoakam; "Nothing" and "Heart of Stone" co-written by Kostas.

1. "Sorry You Asked?" – 3:25
2. "Near You" – 3:04
3. "Don't Be Sad" – 3:19
4. "Gone (That'll Be Me)" – 2:50
5. "Nothing" – 3:55
6. "Never Hold You" – 2:55
7. "This Much I Know" – 3:38
8. "Baby Why Not" – 3:08
9. "One More Night" – 4:41
10. "Heart of Stone" – 4:08

Bibliography

• McLeese, Don (2012). Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0292723818.